days, hypoxia 5 and admission,(6)(7)(8) days.We compared the data from those recent patients with data from 498 cases of hMPV infection at the hospital during 2005-2020. During that period, 9 (1.8%) cases were detected in November-December and 453 (90.9%) during February-May. Patients in the 2021 season were older than those from the previous 15-year period and had significantly higher rates of hypoxia, pneumonia, antimicrobial drug treatment; they also had longer durations of fever, hypoxia, hospital admission, and PICU admission (Table 1).In November-December 2021, during the sixth wave of COVID-19 in Spain, the country experienced an extemporaneous hMPV outbreak at the time when RSV epidemic was usually observed. This outbreak of hMPV infections affected children older than were usually affected in previous years; we also observed a more severe clinical course and higher rates of hypoxia, pneumonia, and admission to PICU than historically.We considered that there may have been competition between respiratory viruses that could justify the delay in the RSV outbreak (5), which occurred in summer (June-July) 2021 in Spain; such competition was not the case for the hMPV outbreak, which coincided with spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. One possible explanation is relaxation of social distancing measures or the extreme contagiousness of Omicron. The increased severity of illness could be partly explained by the absence of hMPV infections in the previous 2 years, resulting in a susceptible population of older children who had not had previous hMPV infections and therefore had no immunity. In previous seasons, children >1 year of age were immunized by previous infections or even through residual maternal protection; this protection did not exist in 2021, and older children were infected. In conclusion, this outbreak illustrates that clinicians should be aware of potential differences in the epidemiology of other viral respiratory infections during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In golden retriever dogs, a 1 bp deletion in the canine TTC8 gene has been shown to cause progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), the canine equivalent of retinitis pigmentosa. In humans, TTC8 is also implicated in Bardet–Biedl syndrome (BBS). To investigate if the affected dogs only exhibit a non-syndromic PRA or develop a syndromic ciliopathy similar to human BBS, we recruited 10 affected dogs to the study. The progression of PRA for two of the dogs was followed for 2 years, and a rigorous clinical characterization allowed a careful comparison with primary and secondary characteristics of human BBS. In addition to PRA, the dogs showed a spectrum of clinical and morphological signs similar to primary and secondary characteristics of human BBS patients, such as obesity, renal anomalies, sperm defects, and anosmia. We used Oxford Nanopore long-read cDNA sequencing to characterize retinal full-length TTC8 transcripts in affected and non-affected dogs, the results of which suggest that three isoforms are transcribed in the retina, and the 1 bp deletion is a loss-of-function mutation, resulting in a canine form of Bardet–Biedl syndrome with heterogeneous clinical signs.
In golden retriever dogs, a 1 bp deletion in the canine TTC8 gene has been shown to cause progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), the canine equivalent of retinitis pigmentosa. In humans, TTC8 is also implicated in Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS). To investigate if the affected dogs only exhibit a non-syndromic PRA or develop a syndromic ciliopathy similar to human BBS, we recruited ten affected dogs to the study. The progression of PRA for two of the dogs was followed for two years, and a rigorous clinical characterization allowed a careful comparison with primary and secondary characteristics of human BBS. In addition to PRA, the dogs showed a spectrum of clinical and morphological signs similar to primary and secondary characteristics of human BBS patients, such as obesity, renal anomalies, sperm defects, and anosmia. We used Oxford Nanopore long-read cDNA sequencing to characterize retinal full-length TTC8 transcripts in affected and non-affected dogs, the results of which suggest that three isoforms are transcribed in the retina, and the 1 bp deletion is a loss-of-function mutation, resulting in a canine form of Bardet-Biedl syndrome with heterogeneous clinical signs.
The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is one of several cricket species with great potential to be farmed as a sustainable protein source. In order to succeed in large-scale cricket farming, knowledge of cricket digestion is essential. The digestive tract morphology of A. domesticus is well documented, but knowledge of the salivary glands is lacking. In the digestive tract of insects, the carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzyme family is believed to contribute to the luminal pH gradient. Presence of CA in the digestive tract of A. domesticus has been reported, but not the cellular localisation. This study examined the digestive tract of A. domesticus, including salivary glands, and the cellular localisation and activity of CA in fed or starved (48 h) males and females. Tissues were collected from third-generation offspring of wild A. domesticus captured in Sweden and the histology of the salivary glands and the cellular localisation of CA in the digestive tract of A. domesticus were determined, to our knowledge for the first time. The salivary glands resembled those of grasshoppers and locusts, and we suggest the two main cell types present to be parietal and zymogenic cells. Histochemical analysis revealed that CA activity was localised in midgut epithelium, both main cell types of salivary gland, and muscle along the entire digestive tract. These findings support the suggestion that CA contributes to digestive tract luminal pH gradient, by driving acidic secretions from the salivary glands and alkaline secretions from the midgut. Starvation resulted in significantly reduced body size and weight, but neither starvation nor sex had any effect on CA activity or localisation.
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